"VMASC's mission and goal is to provide valuable skills and technology to address complex problems and to assist difficult decision-making. The Center strives to foster a strong collaborative relationship among academia, industry, and government partners to succeed in our research. New research and technical support awards totaled nearly $9.6 million last year alone. M&S has been designated as a "national critical technology", solidifying the fact that it is vital to both our national security and to the United States' position in the global market. Efforts are underway to have M&S formally recognized as its own industry, a move that will solidify its place in the economy. M&S is clearly emerging as its own academic discipline with several universities offering graduate degrees, with ODU once again leading the way."

- VMASC Executive Director Dr. John A. Sokolowski

VMASC researchers analyze and apply modeling and simulation to unexplored problems and real-time challenges in unique and established domains. The Center's expertise lies in both pure and applied research, highlighted by a unique multidisciplinary M&S approach in eight core modeling and simulation applied research areas:

• Transportation
• Homeland Security and Military Defense
• Virtual Environments
• Social Sciences
• M&S Interoperability
• Medicine & Health Care
• Game-based Learning
• System Sciences